Cuba - Havana: City (1)

Cuba was in Spanish possession for almost 400 years (circa 1511-1898).
Its economy was based on plantation agriculture, mining and the export of sugar, coffee and tobacco to Europe and later to North America. The political and military history of Cuba in the 19th and 20th centuries has been tumultuous.

On December 2, 1956 a party of 82 revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro, landed in a yacht named Granma with the intention of establishing an armed resistance movement in the Sierra Maestra. The yacht had come from Mexico, where Castro had been exiled and where his army was strengthened with the help of Ernesto Che Guevara, who became one of the most important people in the Cuban revolution and one of Castro’s closest allies.